Stretcher



Janr15, 1946. H, B SON 2,392,850

'STRETCHER Filed Aug. 21, 1942 Jew f J IRENE-m J 4770/2 vsy .andquickly.

ried by; one soldier.

Patented Jan. 15, 1946 Application August 21, 1942, SerialNo. 455,591

Claims. (e1. 5 42) lGranted under the act of March 3 1883,fas amendedApril 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) The invention described herein, ifpatented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government forgovernmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

The present invention relates to stretchers, and more specifically to astretcher of an adjustable type, adapted to support a person inreclining position or in seated position.

It may be explained that when military forces are operating inmountainous regions, or over any rough, irregular, or treacherousterrain, considerable difficulty has been experienced intransportinginjured persons from the area of military combat to hospitals or firstaid stations where their injuries may be treated. Also, under suchconditionasome difficulty may be encountered in transporting a stretcherover hazardous terrain to reach the location of an injured person.

It is, therefore, the principal object of the pres- :ent invention toprovide a novel and improved stretcher including primary and secondaryframe members arranged to be shiftably associated with each other, sothat an injured person may be comfortably carried in prone or seatedposition.

Further, it is an object of the invention to provide such stretcherswherein the adjustment of the stretcher to either position may be madeeasily A further object of the invention resides in the provision of astretcher designed so thatit may be readily folded into a-collapsedposition, to form a compact bundle or pack that may be easily car- Afurther object of the invention resides in the provision of acollapsible stretcher of lightweight,

rugged construction, and well adapted to economical methods of massproduction.

It is also an aim of the present invention to provide a novel stretcherdevice of such mechanical design and construction that it may be con-Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a stretchercon- 'structed in accordancewith the teachings of this disclosure, the stretcher being positioned tosup port a personin sitting posture. 7 1

- Fig.2 is a -longitudinal; sectional viewi oiiethe thereof being shownin positionto support a person inreclining position.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional View of the stretcher, the severalparts being shown in collapsed or folded position.

Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of the central hinge on oneof thestretchers side rails.

The stretcher comprises, in general, a primary frame consisting of apair of joined side rails spaced apart by suitable cross members andincluding carrying handles at each end of each rail, together with ashiftable secondary frame in pivoted relationshipwith the primary frameand so constructed and arranged as to support avfabric stretcher surfacein either of two positions; in one of which the stretcher is adapted tosupport a person in reclining or prone position, and in the other ofwhich the stretcher is adapted to support a person in seated position.

In the drawing, the fabric stretcher surface has been omitted, orindicated. by dotted lines, in order to more clearly illustrate theframe structure, wherein the novel features of the present inventionreside.

Each of the side rails of the main or primary stretcher frame includes afront rail' and a rear rail l2 hinged together by a central hinge l3 andprovided with front and'rear handle portions [4 and i5, respectively;The hinge l3 includes an offset pivot pin It, so that the rails H andiZjm'ay be hinged to lie fiat against each other, for reasons thatwill'beapparent from the following description. The hinge is alsopreferably provided with registering openings I] and [8, so that alocking pin l9 may be inserted through the hinge to maintain thesections I l and I2 of each side rail in rigid end-to-end relationship.

The two opposite side rails of the primary frame of the stretcher arespaced apart by rigid cross braces 2| and 22 adjacent the front and rearends of the frame, respectively, and, if desired, transverse webbingstraps 23 and- 24 may be stretched between'the side rails to facilitatecarrying the stretcher.

The secondary frame ofthe stretcher includes, in general, a back restand a seat portion. These are pivotally mounted with respect to theprimary frame and pivoted to each otherso that the secondary frame maybeshifted into either of the two carrying positions.

The back rest of the stretcher consists of a pair of side members 25,each pivoted on one of therailsl2 of the primary: frame by means of-astretcher illustrated in Fig. 1, the several.:parts' fixedirivetrt tg;The upper end ofithe side members (as seen in Fig. l) are joined by across [6. Thus, when it is necessary to fold the brace 21 and the lowerend of each of the side stretcher into a collapsed position, the rivets33 members includes a spacer structure 28 having may be moved intoco-active position with retwo relatively flat supporting surfaces 29 and30. spect to the king pin it, and the entire stretcher, It will be notedfrom a comparison of Figs. 1 and 2 5 including the primary frame andsecondary that the weight of the stretcher when positioned frame, may befolded simultaneously. When in to support a person in sitting positionmay be this position, the two frames are quite compactly rested oncasurfaceifl, wh le whenlthestretcher is nested together and form acomparatively small in position to'sup'port reclining" person it may bepackthat may be carried by one man. rested on the surface 30. l It maybe noted, in passing, that the present The S Portion of t Stretcher DS?S device has been specifically designed to meet two side rail 32, eachpivoted to the lower end: p present military requirements and that theexof one of the side members 25 by a rivet 33. 'The M is act'structureillustrated in the drawings is beside rails 32 are connected with one ofthe side V lieved to be i nost satisfactory for the purpose. rails H ofthe primary frame by a pin and slot Nevertheless, the principles of theinvention are connection including a rivet' u adapted to pass iJ-beli'eved to 'extendto civilian uses as well as through and slide inthe slot 35. A transverse 1 military, and the structure of the device issubknee support 36 extends between the ends of jected to somemodification without departing the side rail 32 at the forward end'of.the'seat from the teach s of the present disclosure. It portion.Spacing blocks 3'! are provided so that is accordingly'requested thatthe scope of the the side rails 32 will'beproperly aligned withinvention be regarded as limited only by the the inner surface of theside. members. ,of the terms of the appended claims. seat back. ,1 1Having thus described my invention, what I ..The stretcheriabric,indicated in dotted lines claim as new and desire. to secure by Lettersat 38, is secured to the .cross brace 2| at the for- 25 Patentis:-

'ward'end of the stretcher, and extends across Ina stretcherconstruction having a main t k Support, .35 and th s oth crossframeincluding a pair of side rails maintained brace 21 so as to providea full supporting surin paced ionship, each side ai cfl p :face for theentire length of the body oithe n Of hingedly connected sections, a y Sppatienig whether the stretcher isjused in sitting Porting f me co p s ga seat member and a position, such as illustrated in Fig.-l, or"when k rst. member, ,mcans pivotaily connect n theparts are shifted toaccommodate th'epatient the back rest member to the side rails of themain in reclining pbsiflon, illustrated-in Fig.2. 7 .frame intermediatethe ends of one pair of said e main frame l2 and t side members 25;.sections,.means pivo tally connecting the seat ro with drmedopemngs 4|42, Slmember to the side rails of the main frame inrespectively, so thatthe-secondary frame may itelmediatei-the h Other P Of said be positivelylocked in the position shown in'Fig. gsectwnstmeens pivotally connectmet back by bringing these openings into registry and rest member and theseat member, one of said inserting a locking pin, similar to the lockingQivotany connecting means being of the 10st m. I illustrated in gSimilar openings 43 tion type whereby said seat member and said backareprovided in the seat slides 32 andthe side rest m maybe moved intoangular r618" tails Sop/chaining stretcher assembly may {1e tionshipwithrrespect to each other and to said inthe :fiositibn mustratedin Fig-main frame or into substantially parallel rela- M h tion to th siderails of themain frame, the use of lockmg pms .mserte mug hfdistancebetween the pivotal connection of the openings. j g

It has been heretofore pointed. oufthat one of backrestmember to each ofthe side rails and the Objects of the present inventi thepivotalconnection oi the backrest member Visionloia rstretchr': soarranged com to the seat member being substantially equal metedthat.cQmdbegmcmy and easily Con: .to thedistance between the hingeconnecting position or in seatedjposition; the latter possessing obviousadvantages' under certain {stretcher down steep inclines, suchas abrupt:mountain slopes, or when it becomes necessary aimsof thepresent'invention was a provision of a V collapsible stretcher ,frame soarranged that it ciently small so, that. it could be he carried overposition illustrated in Fig; 3,,so that it mayv be the sections of eachof the side rails and the pivotal connection of the back rest member toeach of the side rails comprising the main frame whereby the main frameand the body supporting frame may be folded to permit easy trans- 55.portation.

- 2. In a stretcher construction having a main frame including a pair ofside rails maintained invvspaced relationship, a body supportingframecomprising a seatmember and a back rest member pivotally attached toeach other, means piv- -otally connecting the backrest member to theside rails: of the mainframe, lost motion pivot meansconnecting the seatmember and the side rails of the main frame, whereby said seat memberand said back rest member may be moved into angular relationship withrespect to each other and to said main frame or into parallel relation-"siiip to the'side rails of the main frame, lockverted in order tocarrya person either in re conditions; as for examplefin cases" in'which itbecomes necessary ,to manually carry the,

to lowe r'the entire stretcher by means of ropes or cables. I 0. 3 al ob en pointed qutthat one offthe could be. conveniently foldedinto a packSuffidifficult terrain by one man. {If-he presentstruca ture meetsgthisrequirement admirab1yr since the entire stretcher maybe easily ,foldedinto the figa'silyidcarrie-diiiBVFH- m moqntanous country ing means tolock said back rest member and 1 Where transportatmn of"conventlonaltypes Seat mber to the side rails when the saidmemstretchers by one man iis a practical impossihers are said angularremtionship, dp .billty- In this connectwn ltwluibe noted that ti'onallocking means to lock said back rest memrivet- 3 o h o e members 2 isher and seat member to the side rails when said a dI:afrom -iiiv t 26equal-$011116 members are in parallel relation to said side-spacihgibetweenzflierrivetidandthe hinge:piri-t- :m1s,:;; :11; j::i

3. In a stretcher construction having a main frame including a pair ofside rails maintained in spaced relationship each side rail comprising apair of hingedly connected sections, a body supporting frame comprisinga seat member and a back rest member, the back rest member having a pairof spaced side rails, means pivotally connecting said back rest siderails to the side rails of the main frame intermediate the ends of onepair of said sections, the seat member having a pair of spaced siderails, means pivotally conmeeting the seat member to the side rails ofthe main frame intermediate the ends of the other pair of said sections,means pivotally connecting the side rails of the back rest member'and'the side rails of the seat member, one of said pivotally connectingmeans being of the lost motion type whereby said seat member and saidback rest member may be moved into angular relationship with respect toeach other and to said main frame or into substantially parallelrelation to the side rails of the main frame, the distance between thepivotal connection of the back rest side rails to the side rails of themain frame and the pivotal connection of the back rest side rails to theside rails of the seat member being substantially equal to the distancebetween the hinge connecting the sections of each of the side rails andthe pivotal connection of the back rest side rails to each of the siderails comprising the main frame whereby the main frame and the bodysupporting frame may be folded to permit easy transportation.

4. In a stretcher construction having a main frame including a pair ofside rails maintained in spaced relationship, each side rail comprisinga pair of hingedly connected sections, a body supporting framecomprising a seat member and a back rest member, the back rest memberhaving a pair of spaced side rails, means pivotally 40 connecting saidback rest side rails to the side rails of the main frame intermediatethe ends of one pair of said sections, the seat member having, a pair ofspaced side rails, means pivotally connecting said seat member siderails to the side rails of the main frame intermediate the ends of theother pair of said sections, means pivotally connecting the back restmember and the rails of the seat member, one of said pivotallyconnecting means being of the lost motion type whereby said seat memberand said back rest member may be moved into angular relationship withrespect to each other and to said main frame or into substantiallyparallel relation to the side rails of the main frame, the distancebetween the pivotal connection of the back rest side rails to the siderails of the main frame and the pivotal connection of the back rest siderails to the side rails of the seat member being substantially equal tothe distance between the hinge connecting the sections of each of theside rails and the pivotal connection of the back rest side rails toeach of the side rails comprising the main frame whereby the main frameand the body supporting frame may be folded to permit transportation.

5. In a stretcher construction having a main frame including a pair ofside rails maintained in spaced relationship, each side rail comprisinga pair of hingedly connected sections, a body supporting framecomprising a seat member and a back rest member, means pivotallyconnecting the back rest member to the side rails of the main frameintermediate the ends of one pair of said sections, means pivotallyconnecting the back rest member and the seat member, means pivotallyconnecting the seat member and the side rails of the main frame,intermediate the ends of the other pair of said sections, one of saidpivotal connections being of the lost motion type whereby said seatmember and said back rest member may be moved into angular relationshipwith respect to each other and to said main frame or into substantiallyparallel relation to the side rails of the main frame, the distancebetween the pivotal connection of the back rest member to each of theside rails of the main frame and the pivotal connection of the back restmember to the seat member being substantially equal to the distancebetween the hinge connecting the sections of each of the side rails andthe pivotal connection of the back rest member to each of the side railscomprising the main frame whereby the main frame and the body supportingframe may be folded to permit easy transportation, locking means to locksaid back rest member and seat member to the side rails of the mainframe when said members are in said angu; lar relationship, andadditional locking means to lock said back rest member and seat memberto the side rails of the main frame when said members are insubstantially parallel relationship to said main frame side rails.

HUGH B. JOHNSON.

